


Denial Isn’t Just a River in Africa

by ldhyuckieee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Partying, Underage Drinking, Weed, donghyuck is in denial, friends to sorta strangers to lovers, mark is oblivious, markhyuck, not good at tagging, there might be others
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:46:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28657431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ldhyuckieee/pseuds/ldhyuckieee
Summary: Mark and Donghyuck were inseparable when they were younger but when Mark’s family moves to Canada for a couple of years, how will Mark and Donghyuck’s relationship be now?Will they be able to go back to when they were kids, or will there be something more than innocent feelings getting in the way?
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Kudos: 12





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! this is my first time writing a fic, mainly because i wanted to write one that i would want to read but as you will probably find out i’m not a good writer.  
>  I might also not continue to write this if it doesn’t turn out well.  
> Comments, suggestions, grammatical/spelling corrections would be very appreciated! ☺️  
> also side note i’m typing this on my phone so o don’t have a tab button so this fic will definitely not have tabbed paragraphs, sorry :(

Donghyuck can’t remember a time when he and mark weren’t together. Ever since they were in elementary school they were glued to the hip. Mark wasn’t Mark without Donghyuck and Donhyuck without Mark. They were the best of friends and would always been seen with each other, that is until Mark and his family left for Canada in the middle of middle school.

When Donghyuck heard about the news of Mark’s sudden move, he was heartbroken. The younger boy didn’t like the fact that his other half was going to be separated from him. Even when Mark tried to reassure him that he would only be away for a couple of years, Donghyuck didn’t want to hear anything about it. 

When the time came for Mark to move across the globe to another country, his friends and family had a going away party for the Lee’s. Donghyuck, though not happy about his departure, attended the party and refused to leave Mark’s side the whole entire night.

Of course with the two kids being so close, Donghyuck and his mom naturally came with the Lee’s to drop them off at the airport.

With glassy eyes and tear stains down his face, little Hyuckie said his goodbyes to his best friend and made him promise to keep in touch while he was away, but of course fate seemed to never be on the younger boy’s side and he never received a letter, text, call, or any form of communication from his first friend.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note

I’m so sorry to do this, I usually hate it when the fics i’m reading have author’s notes as a chapter but I needed to clear some stuff up before the rest of the chapters. So I wanted to start off by saying that I am in no ways a writer. This is all just for fun on my part so this fic is going to be written really bad. I apologize if there is grammar mistakes or bad plot holes or any story lines that don’t make sense. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make it better PLEASE tell me. Also I am not sure yet if I want to continue on this fic, I am not great at writing and I am also really busy with school and work so the updates are going to be very slow. Now that I have explained everything here is some background information for the characters.

Donghyuck, Jaemin, Renjun, and Jeno are all the same age. They are in Junior year along with Yukhei. Though in the story Yukhei, Jungwoo, and Mark are the same age. I will be explaining why Mark and Yukhei are in Junior year and not Senior year later in the story. 

Thank you all for reading and taking time to read this note. I am planning on never having to do this again. 🙂


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck learns about the new student at SM High.

“Haechannie, Channie, you have to wake up it’s time for school, you’ve already slept through your alarm and if you sleep any longer you’ll be late.” 

Donghyuck slowly opened his eyes to see his mother in his room trying to wake him up. True to her words, he turned his head and looked to his alarm clock on his desk and saw where he turned it off 20 minutes ago.

“Ugh~”. He groaned while rolling around under his covers. “One tardy isn’t going to affect me much, just let me have 30 more minutes and i’ll be up.” Donghyuck pleaded with his mother.

“No can do Haechan, you have already been late 3 times already, one more and you get a detention and you know your father wouldn’t be too happy about you getting in trouble this early in the school year.” His mother said in a disappointed tone, while turning on his overhead light and leaving his room.

Donghyuck rolled his eyes and sighed at the mention of his father, the father that he was trying to avoid by sleeping in later.

Donghyuck and his father have an extremely strained relationship. Though the boy can remember when they weren’t like this. When Donghyuck was younger, him and his father had a strong relationship. They loved each other, Mr. Chris was the man young Donghyuck looked up to, and Donghyuck was Mr. Chris’s special little boy. Over time, the two started to grow apart. His father realized that as Donghyuck got older, he wouldn’t have control over him anymore. The boy slowly became a teenager who would slowly stop listening to his father and start making his own decisions, something that the older man absolutely could not stand. When his father started noticing that his perfectly constructed child was turning into a rebellious teenager, things started going south. Little arguments turned into big fights, light discipline turned into beatings, and life lessons turned into manipulation and verbal abuse. Donghyuck can remember when his father’s words were filled with adoration and love, but now they only hold disappointment, anger, and hatred. These turn of events have led to present times of Donghyuck skidding around his father and avoiding him as much as possible, like now.

Donghyuck, after one last exaggerated sigh, rolled out of bed and speed walked to his closet to start getting ready for the school day.

He picked up and threw on one of his favorite hoodies, a dark grey one that he has worn way too often for it to still be intact, and a pair of his comfiest skinny jeans.

After getting dressed he walked out of his closet and made his way across his room to his vanity to brush down his freshly dyed red hair and wipe the sleep out of his eyes. He then picked up his makeup bag and applied a bit of concealer to cover up his dark circles. Not wanting to go heavy on the makeup, in order not to make his father angry about his son being “feminine”, he kept the makeup minimal. 

Once he deemed himself presentable, he grabbed his backpack from the corner of his room and quickly left. He planned to grab something to hold him over from the kitchen and quickly leave before his father could notice him before he left for school.

Though Donghyuck would prefer his mornings to be calm and easy going, today just seemed to not be his day, because as soon as he stepped into the kitchen, he saw his dad and the man immediately stopped his race walk out the front door.

“You’re gonna be late -again- Donghyuck?”. The older man said in a condescending tone.

Donghyuck tried to ignore him, not wanting to get in a fight this early in the morning , and continue out the door but was stopped again by his father’s words.

“If you’re late again you’re gonna get dentention and just because you’re being punished at school doesn’t mean you’re gonna be let off the hook at home.”. His dad said with a bite.

Donghyuck turned around to face his dad and took a breath in to try and keep his next words in a quiet and calm tone.

“I know, i’m not gonna be late, i’ll get there in time if you’d let me leave.”

His dad’s face snapped towards him with those words. “Lee Donghyuck you better not be trying me this morning because it will not end well. And for god’s sake, change your hair color back to its normal color, red is too much, especially for a boy.”

Donghyuck winced at his father’s words, he will admit, his father’s way of thinking hurts, but he chose to ignore them and walk out of the door. The boy smiled to himself and gave a mental pat on the back for managing to not slam it on the way out.

To make a bad day worse, Donghyuck was, in fact, late. He just barely managed to scrape by and make it into class before the bell rang by running his way to school.

Sweaty and out of breath, he plopped down in his seat next to Lee Jeno, who looked at him with a worried look, an expression that Donghyuck has gotten way too familiar with.

“Woke up late again?”. Jeno asked with a soft smile on his face.

“Yeah, Chris was holding me back this morning, giving me hell about my hair.” Donghyuck got out in between breaths.

Jeno turned to the other boy with a concerned look in his eyes. “You know I told you I could give you a ride to school so you wouldn’t have to walk.” Jeno’s tone held worry in it.

“I know, but it’s out of your way and I don’t want you to waste gas on me.” He responded, waving off Jeno. Donghyuck knew his friend was a sweetheart who would do anything for his friends, but Donghyuck was stubborn and would hate to inconvenience someone.

Jeno knew that he wouldn’t be able to change the stubborn boy’s mind, so with one last small smile, he left it at that and turned his attention to the teacher.

Eyes drifting shut, Donghyuck tried his best to focus on whatever his teacher was going on about. Even with a good night’s sleep, the boy had extreme difficulties staying awake in his history class due to his teachers boring monotone voice. It’s not so much as Donghyuck hated history, he actually loved it, it was one of his favorite subjects, but his teacher made the class so boring that Donghyuck has come to hate this period the most out of all his others.

Donghyuck’s eyes snapped open the minute the bell rang, quickly packing his notebooks and pencils into in backpack and making his way out of the door, ignoring what Mr. Choi was trying to say before the students left his room.

Walking down the halls, making his way to the cafeteria, Donghyuck’s mind drifted off to Mark. His thoughts about the older boy would flit into his mind every now but he would hold himself back from getting too caught up in thinking about him, not wanting to get upset about his former friend.

The younger used to always wonder about what Mark was up to, was he having fun in Canada? Did he make new friends? Does he ever think about Donghyuck? Did he forget about him? Though Donghyuck already knew the answer to the last question.

Shaking out the thoughts, he reached the cafeteria and he pushed the doors open. He was immediately hit with the loud chatter of the other students in the crowed room.

While still standing at the door, his eyes raked over the students to try and find where the rest of his friend group was sitting.

Once he spotted his crowd he made his way over to the table. Flopping into a seat next to Yukhei and Jungwoo, Donghyuck sat his backpack in the ground near his seat and reached into his lunchbag to grab his food.

While digging into his sandwhich, he was too caught up in hunger to pay attention to whatever Renjun and Yukhei were gossiping about. His ears only picking up the words “new kid”, “transfer”, and “basketball team”. 

A few minutes later, Jeno arrived in the cafeteria and sat down next to Renjun. 

“Hey, what did I miss? Who are we talking about?” Jeno questioned Yukhei, who was still immersed in his conversation with Renjun.

“Jeno!” The smaller boy turned his attention to the late comer and let out an excited voice. “We were just talking about the new kid in Yukhei’s homeroom.” Jeno looked at him questioning.

“New kid? It’s kinda weird for someone to transfer schools when the semester has already started.” 

At this point, Donghyuck’s interest has been piqued. Knowing that there weren’t many transfer students in his school, he was interested about the new kid. 

Renjun turned back to Yukhei and signaled to him to let him take back over the conversation.

“Okay so,” The tall boy started. “He sat beside me in homeroom and we only talked for a little bit so I don’t have any juicy details yet.” Everyone kind of deflated at the mention of Yukhei’s lack of drama. “His name is Mark” 

Donghyuck looked up suddenly paying extra close attention to the conversation. Was this his Mark? Has Mark moved back to his hometown? No it couldn’t be Mark, he was older, the Mark he knew would be a senior not a junior. 

“Yeah, he was pretty cool when I was talking to him. He said he moved from Canada and that’s why he was late getting enrolled.” Yukhei finished explaining as Donhyuck’s widened.

Donghyuck was left to his thoughts as his friends were talking about the new student. Oh god, it had to be the Mark he knew. There is no way that it could be someone else. He thought. 

The boy didn’t realize he was staring off into space until Jaemin spoke up.

“Hyuck are you okay?” The younger boy questioned, gaining everyone else’s attention. “You seem kinda out of it.”

“Ah, nah i’m good, i’m just tired, I didn’t get enough sleep last night.” Donghyuck laughed while answering nonchalantly to get the attention off of him.

While everyone went back talking, Donghyuck was left with his thoughts once again. What was he gonna do? Would he talk to him? Would they go back to how they were before? Would he even get the chance to see Mark? 

No, he decided he was going to avoid Mark and pretend that nothing happened. He would pretend that his thoughts wouldn’t drift off the boy from time to time. Pretend that he didn’t miss his former best friend. Pretend that he wasn’t stuck on thinking about how Mark had forgotten him. Donghyuck would act indifferent towards him and maybe, just maybe, if Mark wanted to talk to him, they could start over.

The lunch bell rang, signaling that it was time for their next class. Donghyuck started packing up his lunch as he was praying to every higher power that he would not have any classes with Mark and that he would be able to avoid the boy all day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading. I didn’t reread or have a beta on this story so I am hoping it turned out well 😅. Pls let me know if there is anything to change. Also let me know if I should put my twitter in the notes for you guys to be able to contact me in an easier way. Sorry for the long note lol.


End file.
